Spirits Spilling Out

after a Mapuche creation myth



When there was only air,
its spirits, 
no good or bad,

I fell to earth for you, my love,
who could shoot desire
from your eyes,

turn everything into rock
and mountain, turn humans
into fire 

burning the sky.
Did you not know the star
you took for yourself

and made into a woman
was me, so new that walking
hurt my feet? I grew

the grass to soften 
the ground; I tried to soften you, 
created birds and butterflies. 

We were naked 
when the planet shook 
and volcanoes spewed,

making me tremble 
with their ringing cracks.
We were naked when it was cold 

and dark. It was a mistake
to listen to the anaconda’s deceit,
that creature formed 

from the hair
of an evil spirit’s head.
When the moon 

opened a hole in the sky, 
I should have been careful
about who could hear me singing.

---

Susana H. Case is the award-winning author of seven books of poetry, most recently Dead Shark on the N Train, 2020 from Broadstone Books, which won a Pinnacle Award for Best Poetry Book. She is also the author of five chapbooks. Her first collection, The Scottish Café, from Slapering Hol Press, was re-released in a dual-language English-Polish version, Kawiarnia Szkocka by Opole University Press and she has also been translated into Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese. Case is a Professor and Program Coordinator at the New York Institute of Technology in New York City and can be reached at www.susanahcase.com.